What causes vitiligo? Vitiligo is an autoimmune disease. This type of disease develops when your immune system attacks part of your own body. If you have vitiligo, your immune system attacks cells in your body called melanocytes.
Anyone can get vitiligo, and it can develop at any age. However, for many people with vitiligo, the white patches begin to appear before age 20, and can start in early childhood.
Vitiligo can be triggered by stress to the melanin pigment-producing cells of the skin, the melanocytes. The triggers, which range from sunburn to mechanical trauma and chemical exposures, ultimately cause an autoimmune response that targets melanocytes, driving progressive skin depigmentation.
Vitiligo signs include: Patchy loss of skin color, which usually first appears on the hands, face, and areas around body openings and the genitals.
Spreading of Vitiligo generally triggers due to repeated intake of some of the odd-food combination items as fish/non vegetarian food & milk for example. Taking much of fermented food or Vitamin C rich food is also seen to be increasing vitiligo spots. Sometimes sudden trauma or stage of depression can also trigger it.
Protect your skin from the sun.
A bad sunburn can worsen vitiligo. If you have a lighter skin tone, there's another advantage to protecting your skin from the sun. Without a tan, the lighter spots and patches are often less noticeable.
Known vitiligo triggers include: A severe sunburn. Injured skin (cut, scrape, burn) Getting a strong chemical like phenol on your skin.
Early signs of vitiligo are the loss of skin color in patches on the body. Initially, the skin may become pale before turning white. However, if blood vessels are just beneath the skin, the skin patch may look like pale pink instead of white.
Significant number of vitiligo patients have diverse psychological problems. Hormonal response to psychological stress such as cortisol has a role in the development of vitiligo.
Topical steroids. Topical steroids come as a cream or ointment you apply to your skin. They can sometimes stop the spread of the white patches and may restore some of your original skin colour.
You can also seek shade and wear clothing that shields your skin from the sun. Don't use tanning beds and sunlamps. Protecting your skin from the sun helps prevent sunburn of the discolored skin. Sunscreen also minimizes tanning, which accentuates the vitiligo patches.
Pityriasis versicolor can sometimes be confused with vitiligo, as they both cause the skin to become discoloured in patches. But there are ways to tell the difference: vitiligo often develops symmetrically (on both sides of your body at the same time), while pityriasis versicolor may not.
Deficiencies in calcium, vitamin D and vitamin E can cause white patches on the skin. While harmless, these white spots indicate that you need to eat a healthy, balanced diet.
Segmental vitiligo is unique, even beyond the fact that it doesn't cross the midline. It spreads very quickly, faster than the other forms, but only for about 6 months (sometimes up to a year).
Treatment cannot cure vitiligo.
While researchers are looking for a cure, treatment cannot currently cure this disease. Treatment can help restore lost skin color, but the color (repigmentation) may fade over time. To keep their results, many patients have maintenance treatments.
Vitiligo usually begins with a few small lighter patches that develop on the skin. These patches may stay the same size for years or grow larger. New patches can appear on the skin. The new patches may be close to existing patches or far from them.
Collectively, our data suggest that metabolic stress might be involved with the onset and progression of vitiligo.
Nevertheless, vitiligo has been found to be associated with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and autoimmune hepatitis [17].
To the best of our knowledge, vitamin D significantly affects melanocytes and keratinocytes. Studies suggest that vitamin D3 increases tyrosinase activity and melanogenesis in vitro [12], which may lead to repigmentation in vitiligo skin lesions.
Vitiligo is an autoimmune disease of the skin, which means that someone with vitiligo has an immune system that is malfunctioning in a small way. The normal role of the immune system is to protect you from infections and cancer.
About 15 to 25 percent of people with vitiligo are also affected by at least one other autoimmune disorder, particularly autoimmune thyroid disease, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, psoriasis , pernicious anemia, Addison disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, celiac disease, Crohn disease, or ulcerative colitis.
Avoid junk foods: Studies have shown that children who have a habit of eating a lot of junk are at a high risk of developing vitiligo. Also a lot of intake of chocolates, cheese, and coffee is also not good for patients with vitiligo.